A group of friends start dying in gruesome ways after a game of Spirit of the Coin goes wrong. The survivors try to save themselves but one of them has something to hide...

Yes, life truly isn’t fair.

I chose this book because it has a 4-star rating on Goodreads but what did I get?

I got a 1-star book that just caused me emotional and mental anguish not because the book was good (IN MY OPINION!) but because of how much brain cells that have died, sacrificing themselves, just so I can finish reading this book.

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGHHHHHHHHH THE MENTAL ANGUISH I FEEL!!!!!!!

The only horror I got from reading this book was not due to the plot or writing but due to the realization that I have wasted my time (I wouldn’t say money because I still do stand by my decision to support local publishers).

This review will have spoilers so if you do not want to be spoiled do stop reading.

Now…

My main issue with this book is the writing. The book was supposed to be scary and creepy and haunting but not once did I feel scared, creeped out or anything in that category. Honestly, I was bored and mind you, I don’t have a high tolerance for anything scary, I am a wuss in every aspect but how the supposedly frightening scenes were written just didn’t work for me as it felt very cliche and overused. There was no nuance to it.

Another issue I have with the writing was the usage of different POV’s. If all your characters sound the same, what is the point of even incorporating different POV’s in the first place. Had the author put a disclaimer as to whose POV we are reading for every change then I would probably just this one slide. It wouldn’t be a big issue but now it is a big issue for me due to the fact that even when I reached the end of the book I still could not distinguish the different POV’s from one another. They just all blended in with one another and it is so annoying for me to read a few pages and realize wait this is not the same character as before and I have to go back a few pages and re-read it again so I can get the stories right.

Aside from that I personally feel like the author used too much cursing as well as ill-timed and ill-written sexual scenes to be edgy which just ruins the plot because it takes me out of the moment and make me go really? Really? I mean your friends are dying one by one and their deaths are not REMOTELY natural and you want to have sexual thoughts right now? What about finding ways to stop whatever is happening from happening?

Not to mention some plot elements that were written which was never brought up again throughout the book. The examples I have are as follows:

Jimie’s one week hibernation where a week of his time was never accounted for. It wasn’t explained. Nobody knows where he went or why he possible slept off a whole week. The only reason this was in the plot was because by having Jimie sleep for a week he will not be alarmed that Afiq too has been missing for a week.

Why was Jimie haunted by ghost children and then for him to find their bones only for this sub-plot to not have any effect whatsoever to the overall plot. Why include this then?

When Syida sang the Ulek Mayang song, what does that have to do with the entity haunting them? What does the song have to do with anything? Again, never explained.

Not only that, but does the authorities not have a sense of curiosity or I don’t know perhaps do their job well????? This is because the first victim was Syira and how her corpse was found was that her feet were tied (rope was tied to the ceiling I assume), she has cut marks all over her body and her stomach was slit open and this book is telling me her death was ruled a suicide. A SUICIDE????!!!!!!

Okay, fine dapat la suicide but I know for a fact Malaysia has no tolerance rule for suicide and that all suicides will be further investigated but here no further investigation happened pun.

Not to mention, Ajim’s death where he literally died from puking hair… PUKING HAIR ALA THE RING WEI. No post-mortem done ke towards these two bodies? Kah, post-mortem doesn’t exist in the world this book is set in?

I haven’t even started on my rant about the characters. Ya Allah. I have never read such bangang (stupid) characters in my life. They have been haunted yeah by this entity for awhile now but still they have yet to let it fully sink in and believe it like bro, two of your friends have died by now and one is missing (at this point Syira and Ajim is dead and Afiq is MIA) and still you susah nak percaya ni tengah berlaku (you still have a hard time believing this is happening)?

Afiq has been missing for a week yet the friends do absolutely nothing. NOTHING except to lament oh I am worried about Afiq I hope he is okay. Come on la! Call the cops, call his family, call his workplace, go back to the abandoned building ya’ll played that Ouija board at. IT’S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE!!! If the situation was not as dire and they were not haunted by an evil entity yes maybe I too would react like they would but obviously that is not the case.

The characters are only reactive and not proactive which annoys the shit out of me. Would it kill you to call a religious person aka Ustaz to help you out because from my perspective the entity is killing you off one by one so you have nothing to lose at this rate.

Oh, don’t get me started with the plot twist. Ya Allah, when I read the plot twist my hope that the book can salvage itself died there and then.

Ok get this. The plot twist was that Afiq the night before the ghost hunting was supposed to happen went to the abandoned building and did some sort of black magic stuff which called onto the entity whose name is Malika. They form a pact where Afiq must release Malika and her gang (Ron, Balqis and one entity whose name I forgot) and provide them with one host body and in return she will appear to ensure that the ghost hunting activity will be more thrilling. Now, she said that if the promise or pact is broken Afiq must pay in the form of a blood sacrifice to her (paraphrasing here but the gist is there) and Afiq agreed to the terms and hence the shitstorm happened.

Now reading that, you don’t think it’s stupid ke?

To ask what is basically a Jinn to appear JUST SO YOUR STUPID GHOST HUNTING WAS THRILLING?!

Translation: Why didn’t you ask for more, ask for money?? ask for a soulmate??? ask for something more significant you dumbass!

The whole book I was completely rooting for Malika just to kill them all because at this rate I had already given up hope.

I think yeah… I think I am done with ranting about this book. I have ranted about it to my boyfriend and my bestfriends for 3 days straight now. My heart just can’t take anymore ranting… Letih kot rasa marah je tiga hari ni.